Skip to main content

pentyl formate

fruity ester

Found in 9 ingredients across the CompKitchen flavor graph.

Look up another compound — search by name, CAS number, PubChem CID, or FEMA #.

2D Lewis structure of pentyl formate
2D Lewis Structure
Formula
C6H12O2
Molecular weight
116.16 g/mol
PubChem CID
12529 — full record on PubChem

Properties

Odor description
fruity, green, ethereal, unripe banana
Volatility
high
CAS number
638-49-3
Not in FEMA GRAS publications 1-33. Of 3,367 listed flavoring substances, none match this compound name. May still be food-safe under other regulatory routes (FDA 21 CFR 172, EFSA, JECFA) — check femaflavor.org for the authoritative current list.

How this molecule is described

Sources disagree about odour more often than they disagree about chemistry. Rather than show one answer, here is every description on file with how many ingredient records carry it.

Descriptions on file

Ordered by how many independent descriptor streams give each wording, then by how often it appears. The bar is still replication — one source copied onto many ingredients scores high there — so the two can disagree.

earthy, ethereal, fruity, green, powerful, unripe banana FlavorDB 2.0
6
powerful, ethereal, fruity, unripe banana, green, earthy FlavorDB 2.0
2
favorable FlavorDB 2.0
1
fruity, green, ethereal, unripe banana shown above Llm Adjudicated
—

Bars are the share of ingredient records carrying each description. High agreement means the sources replicate each other — not necessarily that they are right.

Found in

Measured impact first, then profile share

Every ingredient known to contain pentyl formate. Ingredients with a measured concentration come first, ranked by odour activity; the rest follow by how large a share of that ingredient's profile this molecule is. The figure beside each is how many different compounds that ingredient has in total — not the concentration of pentyl formate in it.

See all 9 ingredients with Pro

The inverted compound index is a Pro feature — reverse-search any of 5,240 flavor molecules across the full graph.

Into the chemistry?

Get a molecule-level pairing breakdown each week — which ingredients share a compound, and why it matters at the table. Free, no spam.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Try the pairing tools to see which ingredient combinations rely on pentyl formate, or compare two ingredients side-by-side.